Lure of the Night
by Paura Nightshade
Summary: An AU in which a seven year old Hiccup has been turned into a dragon. Drama insues
1. It Begins with a Night Fury

Lure of the Night

Chapter 1: It Begins with a Night Fury

Gothi shook her head in exasperation as she peered into the fire she had started. She saw this in the fire years ago and had hoped the boy would listen. It seems that fate is determined to follow through with this bloody and dangerous path.

Once again the fire took shape. She watched as the fire-figure of the chief's son wandered through the fiery trees. She saw the fire-dragon swoop down and carry him off. She saw him change into a dragon. She saw him in his dragon form frolicking beneath another dragon that looked like him.

Events flare in the fire rapidly. They were never in sequence. She saw him cowering before the fire-figure of his father. She saw him in the Kill Ring, fighting to survive. She watched him lose himself. She watched him be controlled.

Gothi always watched but was never heeded.

She watched him Fall.

* * *

><p>I had always wished to please my father. I have only ever lived with my father. I don't know who my mother is. Oh, I'm Hiccup, son of Stoick the Vast, future chief too. If I wouldn't mess up. They call me useless and I don't understand. I'm trying my best to help. Maybe it's better if I stay away and don't have friends.<p>

That is why I'm wandering through the woods off of Raven's Point. It's because no one wants me. I'm happy that trees don't judge. Trees aren't mean and trees don't push me down and kick me. Trees don't say mean words either, because trees don't talk. Trees are nice.

I sneaked away from the house hours ago I think. I'm hungry, but I don't want to go back. They will just hurt me again. Call me a Fishbone, because I'm small and thin. I'm clever and smart. I do my best to make helpful things but it's not easy for a seven year old like me working in the forge.

_Wump!_ Ow, what was that? I look up and see amber eyes looking down at me. Amber eyes that are on a dragon's face!

I blink and continue to stare up at it. It blinks back at me. I shut my eyes and wait for it to kill me. _At least the village won't miss me_, I think bitterly. Hot breath puffs across my face. Any minute now. It makes a chuff kind of noise.

It picks me up with its mouth and I squeak in terror. My mouth finally catches up with my mind and I begin shrieking. I open my eyes and with a thunderous flap of its black wings we're in the air. I look down and watch the ground drop away alarmingly fast. We are so high right now and I'm still screaming. I glance down again and did the most natural thing that came to me.

I fainted.

I woke up with my face pressed against cool grass. I curled up in fear and whimpered. _I'm going to die. This dragon is going to take me somewhere and kill me. _Tears streamed down my face, and I cried. I sniffled but stayed in my curled position.

Off in the distance I heard alarmed shouts. I blinked the tears out of my eyes and looked. I'm in some kind of nest, and the big black dragon with the amber eyes from earlier is circling it. I watched my father burst out of the trees followed by seven other heavily armed vikings.

They charged forward, shouting. I watched in fascination as the dragon reared up and a high pitched shriek began rising in volume. "Night Fury", one of them shouted. "Get down!" The dragon blasted the group and they all dove in different directions to avoid being cooked.

Instead of pursuing them the Night Fury backs up and circles the nest. When it got closer I scrambled backwards. I tumbled into something and watched silently as the Night Fury got closer. It pounced on me and hissed. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw my father shouting and brandishing his weapon as he ran forward. I was so focused on my father hoping he'd save me that I didn't understand what happened next.

The next moments dragged by and the only thing I felt was pain. It wasn't a bad pain. It was more like and itchy stretching kind of pain. My vision was filled with spots and I thrashed in an attempt to get out of the dragon's hold. All of a sudden my vision cleared as the weight lifted.

The Night Fury was next to me, and it was dead. My father was standing over me, and the expression on his face was disbelief and horror. I rolled over and tried to stand up. I toppled forward instead. I tried to ask my father what happened and why he was looking at me like that. Instead a crooning warble came out of my mouth.

I hopped backwards in surprise and looked down to see what was wrong. I freaked out. In place of the hands I loved drawing with were stubby flame red claws. I twisted around and saw flame red scales. I'm a freaking dragon! My dad is going to kill me.

I looked up and then cowered. He was looming over me, and I was hugging the ground as close as I could. he picked me up by the scruff of my neck and carried me. I curled inward and tried to make myself as small as possible. I was so scared I almost missed what my dad said.

"This beast goes to the Arena."

"But isn't he your son", a viking asked.

"My son was killed by that beast", he said harshly.

My heart sunk. I close my eyes and went limp. I rocked around in the grip of my fath-the chief of this tribe. Some time passed before I was hurled forward roughly. I skittered across the ground until I slammed into a wall. I backed up against the wall I just hit and gazed at the doors of my cage with terror in my eyes. A black shape slammed into me and it was suddenly very dark.

I woke up in darkness. I sniffed the air and smelt another Night Fury. It was as tiny as I was, and it was pressed up against me. It was shaking. I trembled, and it finally settled in my mind what had happened to me. I pressed closer against it for warmth and comfort. I curled around it and it fell into a fitful sleep. I felt something tugging at the edges of my mind.

I ignored it and slept.

**I don't own HTTYD. This is my first HTTYD story so no haters.**

**Nightshade**


	2. The Arena

Lure of the Night

Chapter 2: The Arena

Two years have passed in complete silence. Silence that was punctuated be the occasional raid. I named the other Night Fury. He proudly bears the name Nightwhisper. But among dragons he is known as Shade-who-sneaks-quietly.

We were let out for the first time now. They parade us before the new soon-to-be vikings. When I first saw the daylight, I received a new name. I am now Red-Shade-scary-with-night-slashes, or Nightmarestripe, instead of Shade-silent-speaks-with-body, or Silence as I was known as.

We got to know the other dragons to. The Gronkle, or the Club-Tail, is called She-who-lugs-most-meat (Meat Lug). The Nadder, or the Spine-Tail, is called Blue-she-soars-through-storm-clouds (Stormcloud). The temperamental Nightmare, or Fire-skin, is called He-Hot-flames-lunges-fast (Flashfire). The Zippleback, or Two-tail, is Old-wise-he-plays-with-human (Stealth and Sneak). Finally the Terror, or Small-nipper, is He-sneaks-fast-bite (Speedy). They recently caught a Whispering Death, or a Blind-digger. He is a snappish one known as Loner-digs-deepest (Overbite).

They tell me and Nightwhisper about other dragons like Frill-necks (Hobblegrunts), Four-wings (Stormcutters), Blenders (Changewing), Spit-swimmers (Scaldrons), and Ice-kings (Bewilderbeasts). The also told about Fire-queens (Red Death). The told me about their Fire-Queen except for Overbite. He was never one of hers to control. The three of us agree that she seems nicer than the vikings.

Today Gobber teaches the new recruits about what they managed to learn from me and Nightwhisper. Today they are using me. They prefer using me because I don't attack unless I'm prodded or attacked. Currently I'm lounging lazily in the center of the Arena. Since I'm nine now I'm as big as a sapling. I'm about four feet long and my red scaly skin has black stripes going through it. Nightwhisper is actually bigger than me now. He loves to rub it in my face.

My heart sinks when I recognize the new recruits. My cousin, Snotlout, is there as well as the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. There is also my childhood friend Fishlegs and of course there's Astrid. Great. Every one I know and who 'used to' know me is here. They all look bigger even though they are only nine or ten years old. Looks like the vikings are getting desperate.

"This is a Night Fury", Goober states. "But I call him Lazybones", he said with sarcasm polluting his voice.

"He is one of the only Night Furies that have ever been captured! He is also the only different colored one that we know of", Fishlegs states excitedly.

"Correct", Gobber says. "Lazybones here is our demonstration since he is, well, lazy."

I lift my head up and snort. Smoke puffs out of my nose and they all back up scared. My eye rolls and I stand up.

Gobber ignores me and continues. "We found him and his brother as hatchlings. The chief was the first to kill one. He killed their mother. We decided to keep those two. One for training purposes and the other one is part of the initiation ceremony for the best trainee."

Unbeknownst to Gobber, I had been sneaking up on him. I used the shadows. I darted forward and stole his peg leg. He toppled forward in mid speech and I bounded away with it in my mouth.

He growled and said, "Gah, fine! First lesson, get my leg back from him. And don't worry, he won't kill you."

"Wait, what?" Snotlout exclaimed.

I snorted and hopped around. What? I felt like playing. Can't a dragon have some fun? I smiled with the wooden leg still in my mouth and pranced around the Arena again.

Astrid POV~

Gah! Stupid dragon! Wonderful first lesson Gobber. Get your leg back from the most deadliest and dangerous dragon. That's not life threatening at all (sarcasm). The red and black beast eyed me with its forest green eyes. Its eyes remind me of Hiccup so much. I scolded myself. This thing's mother killed Hiccup. It doesn't deserve to live. If only Gobber had allowed us to keep our weapons.

At least there are shields here. I threw my shield at it. It soar over the beast's head. It watched it go and dropped the leg and chased after the shield. I watched stunned as it leaped into the air and caught it. It bounded towards me and I backed up. It dropped the shield and then did some thing that astonished me.

It nudged the shield towards me and whined. We all stared and forgot about the leg.

I picked it up nervously. Its tail thumped against the ground and waited. I swallowed and threw the shield again. Once again it chased after it. It flipped in mid air and caught it. It dropped it and pawed at it. then it turned around and picked up Gobber's peg leg. It trotted forward and brought it to me. It dropped it at my feet and wagged its tail like a dog while looking up at me.

It occurred to me that it was small. It must have been young and no one has ever seen a dragon hatchling. I shook my head and picked the leg up and brought it back to Gobber. He took it from me and put it back on. Then he advanced towards the dragon. It hissed and backed up. Its achingly familiar forest green eyes which were so wide before were now mere slits.

It growled and continued to back up. It squawked and stumbled like something hit it. Its wings flared for the first time since we'd seen it. It eyes clouded and it snarled at me and everyone else behind me. We heard a rising shriek. It opened its mouth and blasted the wire netting on the Arena. It flapped its wings and shot forward with incredible speed through the fresh hole it just made.

It rose shakily into the air and careened drunkenly left and right as if it didn't know which way it was going. It dropped a few feet as if something had hit it. It straightened and began to pick up speed. Soon we couldn't see it in the skies anymore.

*Back to Hiccup/Nightmarestripe*

I felt her calling me. The Queen was calling me. She helped me fly. She taught me what to do. I followed her call to what would soon be my home. I swooped low over the water and caught a fish like it was the most natural thing. My wings flared and flexed sending me shooting back up into the sky. On my way back up I passed some smokey smelling ships. Silly humans, You can find the nest by looking. You have to hear the Queen's call.

Flying became natural, and it wasn't long until I reached the nest. I swooped down and hovered. The other dragons muttered about how new I was.

_My Queen! I bring an offering to you. Please allow this young Shade to serve you! _I pleaded.

Her massive majestic head rose up and eyed me. She rumbled out a pleasant purr. _Little one, you bring me something as big as you. I accept your offering Little Shade. Pray tell, what are you known as?_

I dropped my offering into her mouth and purred. _I am known as Red-shade-scary-with-night-slashes your majesty. _

_Welcome to the nest brave little hatchling. The Spine-tail, Mothers-all-has-green-fire, will teach you what those wretched vikings kept you from learning._

I landed on a small rock that over looked the Queen's spot and purred.

**Chapter two. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**He is now part of the nest and under the complete control of the queen. Poor Hiccup.**

**I feel bad now.**

**Oh well, the story must go on.**

**Nightshade**


	3. Twisted Magic

Lure of the Night

Chapter 3: Twisted Magic

Nightmarestripe~

* * *

><p>I have a home. That thought thrummed through my head. The Spine-tail, Mother's-all-has-green-fire, is the first mother I had ever been raised by. She made sure I brushed up on my flying. Most of the time we call each other by our species unless you are considered family or you owe your life to some one. That means a lot of dragons will call me Nightmarestripe. The Spine-tail has given me permission to call her Greenfire.<p>

Greenfire has done her best to teach me my magic. We had problems but the queen fixed it. A curious side effect of her fixing my magic is that my eyes turned red. I'm also a lot more aggressive even though I'm still small.

Since my magic has been fixed, today is the day I lead a raid for the queen.

I swooped up to the calling rock. I screech and the entire nest has gone silent. "It is time! I want twenty volunteers for my strike*. Four groups of five split into two flares, one talon, and one stealth**."

The dragons clamored around me with excitement. I weeded through them and came up with this in my strike. Three Fire-skins and two Razor-wings (Timberjacks) placed in the first flare. Five Club-tails in the second flare, and the talon contained two Spine-tails and three Two-tails. The stealth had two Small-nippers, one young Four-wing, and two Spine-tails. My strike was ready to go.

I chose the Four-wing because I had raised him. I gave him his name. Stormslasher is known to the other dragons as Cuts-through-storms-raised-by-shade. He flies directly behind me in the strike I am currently leading. He has proved himself to be reliable and honorable in past raids.

Very soon we fly past the ugly stone statues that signify this viking infested heap of rock. My blood boils at the thought of them. They killed my mother and have my brother imprisoned. Today is the day I free him. I tap into my magic. The magic I learned while I was living among a flight of Blenders (Changewings). My skin ripples and matches the dark starry night around us.

We circle silently over the island. I give the signal and the first flare dives down shrieking. Horn blasts sound through the air and the vikings come clamoring out. The second flare quickly joins the first giving the viking a hell of a time dealing with them.

The stealth took advantage of the mayhem caused by the two flares. They quickly located the food supplies. Soon the talon came in and began taking it. I circled silently around. There was no need yet to announce my presence. Finally I spotted what I was looking for. That strange metal cage. I swooped in silently. There were a bunch of sticks and weird thingys sticking out of the walls. Somehow I knew what they were for.

I forced my weight upon the all of the sticks and the shiny walls opened. I reared joyfully as I saw my brother and the other dragons there. Flashfire and Stormcloud seemed a little bruised. Stealth and Sneak were bobbing their heads in thanks. Overbite grinned at me and rotated his teeth. Meatlug and Speedy bowed to me and immediately took off. Nightwhisper bolted towards me and purred.

"You're still really small", he murmured.

I smiled at him. I nuzzled him in return. "Come on", I whispered. We all took off. Flashfire carried my brother since I could not.

I turned around. It is time to show these wretched vikings how futile it is. I locked my wings into the dive position and aimed for the sources of light intruding upon our domain. A red plasma blast came out of my mouth and promptly destroyed the stupid giant light bowl on a stick (AN: Sounds like an exotic barbecue dish).

"Night Fury! Get down!" I heard from below. Silly humans, I am a dignified Shade. I had fun destroying more of their stupid things they always made. I sounded the retreat and watched in satisfaction as my strike flew away with enough food to satisfy the queen. I followed after them. Some in the flares and I included swooped down and caught some decent sized fish on the way back to the nest.

I am so excited. I get to teach my brother. Raids will be so much safer with two Shades guarding the strikes instead of one.

We hurried back to the nest with the food for the queen. She was satisfied and glad of the others we had rescued. She was somewhat disappointed that I had put myself in harms way to save them. Because of my successful actions she let me off with a light sentence. I was put on patrol duty. To destroy those stupid vikings that came looking for our nest.

I took it with grace and before I left for my first week of patrol I introduced my brother to Greenfire. They took to each other immediately. I nodded in satisfaction and left for my first patrol. It was very uneventful.

Time skip~

I was nearing the end of my sentence. I was yearning to rejoin the raids. I ranged farther each day for my patrols. Being a Shade I could easily scout new territory for the queen. I went really far today. For a good reason. I have picked up the scent of a Four-wing. It was an adult and I was intrigued.

I followed it to this strange metal thing. I hovered cautiously above it. The scent was old. From inside the thing I smelled a Frill-neck. I think. I had only encountered one once before. I moved inside it to get a better scent and the thing closed around me. I screeched in outrage and tried blasting it open. It did nothing.

Except blow me backwards so I slammed against the metal wall of it. The only thing I succeeded in doing was knocking myself unconscious.

I woke to a gentle dipping motion like I was being carried by a dragon. Then the memories hit me and I cringed. I really did all those terrible things? That Fire-Queen is evil and cruel! She controlled me and buried my memories under her influence. Which made me realize that I am now outside of her influence.

I decided it was time to open my eyes. Wow! That is a lot of ice. We must be headed to the lair of an Ice-King if the imposing ice nest was anything to go by. We flew in and the dragon carrying me dropped me on a ledge overlooking a giant pool of water. It had a dragon in it. A really BIG dragon in it.

He raised his head and looked at me. I sunk low to the ground, terrified.

"You have nothing to be afraid of little Shade", his big voice rumbled. "I am the White King."

I glanced up nervously.

He continued, "You are safe here. I will protect you."

My legs gave out with relief.

**There is chapter three. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**Things are moving along rather fast. Hiccup or Nightmarestripe is already with Valka and the Bewilderbeast. **

**Next chapter we go back to Berk and see it from Astrid's eyes.**

***A strike is a dragon term for group.**

****A strike is often split into four classes. **

**Flare-distraction**

**Talon-decisive snatchers usually**

**Stealth-finder group**

**Mage- obviously magic users. Usually it's just a Night Fury or more. Maybe a Skrill too.**

**Nightshade**


	4. The Price Paid

Lure of the Night

Chapter 4: The Price Paid

Nightmarestripe~

* * *

><p>I hate my magic. It makes the human female that lives with the White King afraid to go near me. It makes the Four-wing, Cloudjumper, avoid me so that the human does not come into contact with my temper which was a cause of that evil Fire-queen polluting my magic.<p>

My past is still blurry which result in an even more moody and temperamental me. The human, Valka, seems familiar. I can't seem to remember where I heard that name. How I heard it is a mystery as well as how I know the names of those viking hatchlings. The White King tells me it is a side effect of that Fire-queen polluting my magic.

I am a naughty hatchling. I sneak off to Berk, how I know it's called that I don't know, and help with the raids. I don't take anything though. I just help my old nest. I haven't seen my brother since I went on that fateful patrol. I wonder if he misses me. Most like he doesn't even remember me.

I ended up antagonizing Cloudjumper a little bit too much today. I startled his Valka. He bit me in response. Currently I'm sulking on my favorite perch at the ledge overlooking the huge ocean thermal. Soon the warm air and the bright sun lull me into a peaceful nap.

I wake up some hour later to see the biggest shock of my life. I am now a Four-wing. Cool.

I fan my wings and examine myself. I still have the trademark red skin with black stripes but I have all the features and physical appearances of a Four-wing. I wonder if I can change back to my usual self as a Shade. The minute I completed that thought I began transforming back.

I purr happily and take flight. I wheel back around and soar into the nest. Cloudjumper is no where in sight but Valka is there tending to a Frill-neck. I bounce up to her and she stares apprehensively at me. Soon I realize that she is nervous and I stop bouncing. The Frill-neck leaves as I slowly slink up to her. Her eyes widen as she stares into mine.

I nudge her hand gently and she strokes my head in response. "I thought your eyes were red", she whispers. "But they aren't now. They're a beautiful green. They remind me of the son I left behind." She stares sadly off into space. "Oh how I miss my little Hiccup."

My ear frills perk up and I look at her curiously. That name sounds familiar. I croon soothingly and nudge her again. She stands up and I huff impatiently for her to get on my back. It is time to make it up to her for being a grouchy dragon. Her eyes widen as she understands what I'm trying to say.

She picks up her communication staff and climbs onto my back. I flutter my wings and take to the sky. I can feel happiness radiating off Valka. I soar gently through the air. She steers me in a direct and I realize what we are going to do. We're going to rescue other dragons.

I fly into the nest and Valka rattles her staff. I tell the White King that we are going on a rescue mission. Cloudjumper flies up to me and demands to know why his human is riding me. I tell him that this is my way of apologizing. The White King consents and comes with us to the evil black rock nest.

We free the dragons and our king destroys the rock nest with his ice breath. Our flight returns to the nest in high spirits. Valka rejoins Cloudjumper and I go flying away from the nest. I have to check on Berk. It was a good thing that I did.

There was a raid. My old nest mates were not doing good. I glared at the mean vikings that were hurting my nest mates. In retaliation I destroyed two over their giant light sticks. I heard cries of, "Night Fury! Get down!"

I circled back around for another go at those light stick and rock launchers. I closed in and to my surprise something closed around me. I shrieked in anger and fell out of the sky. This is going to hurt. I hit a tree and slammed into the ground hard.

Blissful sleep claimed me.

* * *

><p>Astrid~<p>

Yes! I hit it!

I was the first to take down a Night Fury. Unfortunately we had to rebuild the village, so I couldn't go out searching for it right away. It was already the next morning by the time I could go looking. I set out in the direction I saw it fall.

I searched and became frustrated that I couldn't find it yet. I growled in anger and said out loud, "Some viking lose their dagger or their ax. Not me, no, I manage to lose a very valuable dragon!" I slapped a branch out of my way in anger and ducked as it whipped back. Then I stopped and looked at the tree the branch was attached to.

The entire tree was broken and bent over. I follow the trail of a deep trench as it reaches the crest of a hill. I peered over and ducked done instantly in fear. It was there.

I peeked over cautiously. The beast was red and black, and it was thoroughly tangled up in the bola I had snared it with. I slowly creep up to it. "I did it." I murmured out loud. "The village will thank me for this." I place my foot against its hide. "I have brought down this mighty beast."

It huffs and pushes my leg back. I stumble backwards in slight fear. I stare into its fearful pleading eyes. Then I notice something that chilled me to the core. Something that made me remember something I had wanted to forget. Those familiar eyes watched me with an expression I never forgot.

Deep emerald eyes watch my every move wearing and expression I had seen on Hiccup's face a lot.

**Dun dun dun. What happens in the next chapter?**

**Guess you'll have to wait.**

**If you are confused on something I'll explain it in the next chapter.**

**Nightshade**


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